Exmouth Ningaloo reef house

This 98 square-metre house sits on a level block in Exmouth, the North West Cape town that functions as the gateway to Ningaloo Reef — the largest fringing reef in Australia and a UNESCO World Heritage site. The build is engineered for the region: a cyclone-rated steel frame, Colorbond cladding and roof, wide shaded eaves, louvre and awning windows, and a fully screened outdoor room off the living area. Three bedrooms with built-ins, one bathroom plus a second toilet, an open kitchen-living space with tiled floors and air-conditioning, and a hard-stand with a high carport for a boat and 4WD. Solar panels, a garden shed and hardy native landscaping that survives the dry.

Exmouth is unusual: a purpose-built town of around 2,800 people with modern infrastructure, a marina, and a tourism economy driven by something genuinely world-class. From March to August whale sharks aggregate off Ningaloo; humpbacks pass from July to October; manta rays are resident year-round. Housing has stayed reasonable because the town is remote — 1,250 kilometres north of Perth — but demand is steady and the rental market for tourism staff is chronically tight, which matters if you intend to let the house when you are away. Freehold title, WA conveyancing, FIRB approval and WA's foreign buyer duty surcharge for non-residents; cyclone-loaded insurance is standard here.

Four hundred metres away is Town Beach on the gulf side — calm, shallow, warm water good for swimming and launching a kayak. The real prize is across the cape: Turquoise Bay, Oyster Stacks and Lakeside in Cape Range National Park, forty minutes' drive, where you walk off the sand into living coral and hundreds of reef fish without a boat. Whale-shark and manta charters leave from the Exmouth Marina and Tantabiddi ramp. Behind the beaches, Cape Range's gorges — Yardie Creek, Charles Knife, Mandu Mandu — cut red rock down to the sea, with black-footed rock wallabies and euros at dawn.

Town services cover the essentials well: an IGA supermarket, a hospital and medical centre, a K-12 district high school, a hardware store, dive shops, mechanics, a bakery, cafés, the Potshot Hotel and a marina precinct with restaurants and a boat ramp. Bigger retail is in Karratha or Perth, and most residents order freight.

Learmonth Airport, 36 kilometres south, runs daily Qantas services to Perth (roughly two hours), and the sealed North West Coastal Highway makes the Perth drive a two-day trip.

For anyone whose priority is water — diving, snorkelling, fishing, boating — Exmouth offers reef access that would cost a fortune anywhere else on earth, attached to an ordinary, comfortable, affordable Australian house.